April 30 is Walpurgisnacht, the night of the “Witches’ Sabbath.” It was also the first time a public forum on Mayoral Control that featured Mayor Bob Duffy occurred. What one has to do with the other is a matter for conjecture, though it might have had something to do with the low turnout for this much anticipated event. Only about 100 people showed up, despite the intensity of emotion that the subject has produced in Rochester the last six or seven months.

D&C editor James Lawrence moderated the event, sponsored by the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. The panelists were city council president Lovely Warren, Sandy Parker from the Rochester Business Alliance, Mayor Duffy himself, Rochester Teachers’ Association leader Adam Urbanski and school board president Malik Evans.

The rules for the discussion were simple: each panelist had seven minutes to make opening statements. There would be a follow up of two minutes to answer questions by Mr. Lawrence, followed by one minute to conclude. If the audience had any questions, they were to fill out a card addressed to a particular panelist, and then Mr. Lawrence would put the question to that panelist.

Unfortunately, none of the panelists were in their best form Friday night. In particularly, neither Bob nor Lovely looked well. Perhaps it was the warm weather. But none of the panel gave any real answers to the current crisis facing the Rochester schools.

Perhaps it was because the questions submitted by the audience seemed “cherry picked” by Mr. Lawrence. The three submitted by myself and two of my friends were never used. Perhaps it was because of time constraints. Perhaps some people had questions that were controversial. Perhaps some questions required replies that Mr. Lawrence felt that the panelists had no answers to offer.

Who knows?

All I know is that people left no wiser than before they came to this discussion, and that neither side were able to bring over their opponents to their way of thinking.

However, it was noticeable that the term “mayoral control” was hardly used. The term “educational reform” was frequently substituted for it by Lovely, Sandy and Bob, supporters of it. Adam and Malik, opponents of “mayoral control,” kept on speaking against it as such.

There were some interesting statements made during the course of the discussion, none of which had to do with improving anything, which allowed the panelists to tap dance around the issue.

Lovely Warren: “The city council can vote the school budget up or vote it down. But if we vote it down, it will still happen.” So why do we have city council vote for it at all?

Sandy Parker: “There are lots of high paying jobs in Rochester available to people with only high school diplomas. In the medical field, for instance.” What, emptying bedpans provides lucrative incomes? Come on now, Sandy!

Sandy: “In February, the RBA conducted a poll of 500 people, the results of which matched the poll conducted by the CGR the following month.” That’s the first anyone heard of that, and the CGR’s poll didn’t satisfy opponents of “mayoral control.”

Adam Urbanski: “I want change, just not this change.” “Assault on civil rights.” “Collaborative change, not concessions.” All of this sounds good. It would sound even better if Adam weren’t the head of a union whose membership would come under closer scrutiny and many downsized in the course of tightening up the school budget under “mayoral control.”

Malik Evans: “Non-binding public referendums.” “Non-partisan school board elections.” Sounds good, but it has been done before. And why waste the time and effort to vote on something that will not force anybody to do anything? But, at least Malik went through the city school system and did well there. And he is also the best example that a good family environment, despite poverty, can produce some shining examples. Perhaps Malik’s own experience is the greatest refutation of the need for mayoral control.

Bob Duffy: the usual glittering generalities, especially since everyone knows the problem. But he did wisely say that “there are no easy answers.” The problem, quite simply, is that he’s not providing ANY answers. If Bob simply produced a plan of some kind, it might go a long to way to gain support or at least silence debate. Bob also wisely chose not to mention his “79% approval rating” or the poll conducted by the CGR, since those have been done to death.

And so the debate goes on. “Mayoral Control” or “Educational Reform.” “A rose by any other name, the perfume, and the pricks, the same.”

Oh, well. At least the festivals are coming up. At least those are non-partisan.

Contributors

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Rich Gardner has been writing about the history, culture and waterways of Upstate New York for years. His articles have appeared in U.S. and Canadian publications, and one book, Learning to Walk. He is an alumnus of Brighton High School and SUNY Geneseo. He operates Upstate Resume & Writing Service in Brighton and recently moved to Corn Hill, where he is already involved in community projects. "I enjoy the 'Aha!' moments of learning new things, conceptual and literal. City living is a great teacher."

Ken Warner grew up in Brockport and first experienced Rochester as a messenger boy for a law firm in Midtown Tower. He recently moved downtown into a loft on the 13th floor of the Temple Building with a view of the Liberty Poll and works in the Powers Building overlooking Rochester’s four corners as Executive Director for UNICON, an organization devoted to bringing economic development to the community. He hopes to use his Rochester Blog to share his observations from these unique views of downtown.